Charging - plugged-in climate control and EVSE overhead

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wsbca

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 3, 2010
Messages
505
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SL-E powered by 3KW AC Solar in SoCal
Jimmydreams said:
wsbca said:
What I don't know is how much juice from the EVSE it took to cozy up the car during those 25 minutes. I'm hoping it was not operating at a full 3.3KW.

Once I get my car, I'll be able to tell you exactly how much juice it uses. I have a TED monitor set up with one 'monitor' set exclusively for the EVSE circuit. Right now, the Clipper Creek is reading .005kWh while 'resting' with nothing plugged in.

Looking forward to your data Jimmy - I might have to get myself a TED!

In addition to curiosity about the climate control pre-heat/cool load, I am still somewhat nervous about the efficiency of charging - we did our first charge last night from 46% to 80%, but with our analog single meter and the fact that I didn't precisely compare readings before and after the charge (didn't look at the after until the next morning) I am hesitant to speculate yet on how much we pulled from the wall to put that 34% (8kWh?) into the car. I do know it charged for ~2:20 - started at 8pm and emailed me that it had stopped at 10:20... so presumably it was on the order of 3.3 kW (onboard charger rating, right?) x2.33 hours which would match that 8 kWh. But the meter was really whipping forward when the charger kicked in (seemed significantly faster than it runs in reverse when we're generating 3KW from solar with the house load negligible) - our meter surely advanced somewhat more than the 8 plus our normal overnight (fridge) load...the question is how much more.

Jim - as to the TED "reading .005kWh" for the idle EVSE - does that indicate the cumulative total of kilowatt hours since the EVSE breaker got flipped on after your install (which could be described as "not much at all"), or do you mean it's actually drawing .005kW (5 watts) continuous while it's idle?...which would translate to 43kWh a year. Man I really hope the Blink does not draw 30W at idle as apparently described by the manufacturer to someone in another thread.
 
wsbca said:
Jim - as to the TED "reading .005kWh" for the idle EVSE - does that indicate the cumulative total of kilowatt hours since the EVSE breaker got flipped on after your install (which could be described as "not much at all"), or do you mean it's actually drawing .005kW (5 watts) continuous while it's idle?...which would translate to 43kWh a year. Man I really hope the Blink does not draw 30W at idle as apparently described by the manufacturer to someone in another thread.

The Clipper Creek is drawing 5 watts at idle. I agree about the Blink. I think 30w is a bit much, even given it's wifi connectivity, etc. :?
 
driveleaf said:
AV describes their unit as drawing 5watts in idle mode. Irritating.

On the plus side one could turn off the AV or Clipper units when not in use (perhaps by installing a switch, if the breaker is too awkward to get to, or if flipping a breaker repeatedly is not adviseable), without repercussions...but we probably won't be able to do that with the Blink at least not for the duration of the Project.
 
If the Blink really pulls 30w just sitting there, that's 21 kWh / month. I'm sure someone with a bit of time will quickly calculate how much that costs them when on one of the EV project TOU rates. I'd guess around $3/mo. Most disturbing is that it would account for about 5% of my current annual electricity usage - to do basically nothing.

If you make sure your EVSE disconnect is close to the EVSE, it should be easy to pull the switch so it's only on when you need it. Not sure what the cycle rating is on your typical blade type disconnect - but as long as there isn't load when you are turning on/off wear should be minimal.
 
drees said:
If the Blink really pulls 30w just sitting there, that's 21 kWh / month. I'm sure someone with a bit of time will quickly calculate how much that costs them when on one of the EV project TOU rates. I'd guess around $3/mo.

I'm going to guess $4.42 on M and $4.74 on H.

Really hoping it's not that bad!! The raw lost kwh could amount to 80 LEAF miles a month, but when you translate the wasted $ into potential super off peak kwh you could buy, that's more like 270 LEAF miles a month. I know it's not a lot of money for someone wealthy enough to buy the car in the first place, but if these here electric car contraptions really take off, that really adds up in terms of waste!
 
its funny that we whine about what our chargers are drawing when they are not doing their job when i bet everyone here has at least a half dozen vampire drains in their house running right now.
 
Talk about vampire loads. Just last week I discovered my central AC compressor draws 40W even on standby. I now switch off the breaker and will only switch it back on later in the year when it gets warm.
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
its funny that we whine about what our chargers are drawing when they are not doing their job when i bet everyone here has at least a half dozen vampire drains in their house running right now.
Even so - your point? Just because you may have vampires adding a few more is OK? A 30w vampire is pretty large.
 
drees said:
DaveinOlyWA said:
its funny that we whine about what our chargers are drawing when they are not doing their job when i bet everyone here has at least a half dozen vampire drains in their house running right now.
Even so - your point? Just because you may have vampires adding a few more is OK? A 30w vampire is pretty large.


so what are you going to do about it? unplug it? flip the breaker every time u are not using it?

i agree 30 watts is large and not sure where that is coming from, but i would look elsewhere to save that wattage. now i really cant talk which is why i made the comment in the first place. i have at least a dozen around the house not to mention a computer that never gets turned off.
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
its funny that we whine about what our chargers are drawing when they are not doing their job when i bet everyone here has at least a half dozen vampire drains in their house running right now.

Depends on how you define vampire. If you mean completely parasitic and useless, that's one thing, but if the load is actually doing something, that's something else. Yes, I do have 20+ tiny loads that I can count off the top of my head, but most are on the order of 1W each (cordless phone charging dock with a phone in it), or they're actually doing something semi-interesting (eg. hardwired smoke alarms, clock, router, dvr hunting for shows to record). True vampires (eg. phone chargers not on a power strip, idle PC speakers and or/their wall warts, shredder, etc)? Nope. Although I welcome suggestions for something I might have missed.

See, my problem is that if the Blink does in fact draw 21kwh a month, that's literally 10% of my ENTIRE monthly electrical usage pre-LEAF - so I feel somewhat justified in (anticipating) not liking it and saying so, especially if there's no technical reason why it should be that way. I realize my total usage is crazy-low, and if that load was 1% of my total like it would be for my next door neighbor, I suppose it wouldn't matter.

When I mentioned to an Ecotality guy at the SD rollout that there were statements floating around that the Blink drew 30w when idle, he emphatically expressed that he thought that would not possibly the case (realizing that it would be irritatingly high), and that it "should" only draw "a few milliamps"...eg. 25mA @240V would be 6 watts. But he didn't really know, and the claim of 30w supposedly came right from the manufacturer. So I'm thinking it could well be true. If it draws 6w, then you're right, it's not worth losing sleep over and there are any number of other similar loads to worry (or not) about.
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
so what are you going to do about it? unplug it? flip the breaker every time u are not using it?
Possibly, yes. Or "trade" it for the clipper creek which has a much more reasonable 4-5W vampire draw (still too high though, IMO!)
 
No kidding.. my "nighttime, nobody home" power floor is over 500W, what with all the WiFi, chargers, computers, remote-control stuff.

My house is a whole clan of vampires.
 
GroundLoop said:
No kidding.. my "nighttime, nobody home" power floor is over 500W, what with all the WiFi, chargers, computers, remote-control stuff.
Ouch - that's 360 kWh/month right there!
 
maybe there is a way to just turn off the wi fi. or lower its power output when it "knows" the car is not in the area.

30 watts is high and suspect. 5 watts is marginally acceptable. i just took my killawatt meter around to several gadgets in my house and 3-5 seems to be the norm. was a bit shocked to see that on my DVD player when it appears there is nothing but a clock on it when its off.

but i have so much other stuff that is on all the time...netflix instant view, have 2 of them. it does nt even have an on/off switch.

funny though, my wi fi i checked it, it uses between 40-80 watt so not a whole lot difference.
 
I put a call in today to someone from Ecotality about the Blink's standby load. I left a message. If I ever get a call back, I'll report what they say. Once the Blink unit is installed, my TED will tell me exactly what it's using. More info if/when it becomes available.
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
funny though, my wi fi i checked it, it uses between 40-80 watt so not a whole lot difference.
Ouch - what kind of wifi device do you have? Mine uses about 5w. An older one I had drew 10w. If you replace yours with a low power one it will pay for itself in a year.
 
Jimmydreams said:
I put a call in today to someone from Ecotality about the Blink's standby load. I left a message. If I ever get a call back, I'll report what they say. Once the Blink unit is installed, my TED will tell me exactly what it's using. More info if/when it becomes available.

Thanks Jimmy....I'm in the ETEC project, and I will not be happy if the Blink draws 30W just sitting there. :eek:
 
drees said:
DaveinOlyWA said:
funny though, my wi fi i checked it, it uses between 40-80 watt so not a whole lot difference.
Ouch - what kind of wifi device do you have? Mine uses about 5w. An older one I had drew 10w. If you replace yours with a low power one it will pay for itself in a year.

Agreed - I just put the power strip which has my Cisco cable modem, Belkin Wifi Router (which has a fairly big, warm wall wart) and Sunpower data gateway all on it on the Kill-a-watt - 12 watts total. Looks like the cable modem is 4-5, router is 5-6, gateway is 1.
 
When I install wall sockets for 120 or 240v EVSEs, I will also install an appropriately-rated wall switch directly alongside each socket, and one for the (probably unused) hard-wired connection, if any.

It probably (?) will not hurt the EVProject data to have the Blink shut off when it is not being used.
 
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